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SPOTLIGHT

Some Of Our FavoriteTools And Toys

Surely you know somebody who loves outdoor cooking who deserves a gift for the holidays, birthday, anniversary, or just for being wonderful. There he is, right in the mirror! Here are our selections of best ideas, all Platinum or Gold Medalists, listed by price.

If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the Slow 'N' Sear

Bring The Heat With Broil King Signet's Dual Tube Burners

The Broil King Signet 320 is a modestly priced, 3-burner gas grill that packs a lot of value and power under the hood. Broil King's proprietary, dual-tube burners get hot fast and are able to achieve high, searing temps that rival most comparatively priced gas grills. The quality cast aluminum housing carries a Limited Lifetime Warranty.

The Good-One Is A Superb Grill And A Superb Smoker All In One

The Good-One Open Range is a charcoal grill with an offset smoke chamber attached. It is dramatically different from a traditional offset smoker. The grill sits low in front and doubles as a firebox for the smoke chamber which is spliced on above and behind so it can work like a horizontal offset smoker only better. By placing the heat source behind and under the smokebox instead of off to the side, Open Range produces even temperature from left to right, something almost impossible to achieve with a standard barrel shaped offset.

Griddle And Deep Fryer All In One

The flat top does the burgers and the fryer does the fries. Use the griddle for bacon, eggs, and home fries. Or pancakes, fajitas, grilled cheese, you name it. Why stink up the house deep frying and spatter all over? Do your fried chicken and calamari outside. Blackstone's Rangetop Combo With Deep Fryer does it all. Plus it has a built in cutting board, garbage bag holder, and paper towel holder. An additional work table on the left side provides plenty of counter space.

The Pit Barrel Cooker May Be Too Easy

The PBC has a rabid cult following for good reason. It is absolutely positively without a doubt the best bargain on a smoker in the world. Period. This baby will cook circles around the cheap offset sideways barrel smokers in the hardware stores because temperature control is so much easier. Best of all, it is only $299 delivered to your door!

The Swiss Army Knife Of Thermometers

The smart folks at ThermoWorks have finally done it: The Swiss Army Knife of thermometers, two in one. Start with the industry standard food thermometer, the Thermapen MK4, (Platinum Medal winner) truly instant (2 to 3 seconds) precise (+ or – 0.7°F). Then they built in an infrared thermometer ideal for measuring the temps of pizza stones, griddles, and frying pans (also great for finding leaks around doors and windows in your house).

The Cool Kettle With The Hinged Hood We Always Wanted

Their NK22CK-C Charcoal Kettle Grill puts a few spins on the familiar kettle design. In fact, the hinged lid with a handle on the front, spins in a rotary motion 180 degrees. It's hard to beat a Weber kettle, but Napoleon holds its own and adds some unique features to make the NK22CK-C a viable alternative.

G&F Suede Welder's Gloves

Heat Resistant Gloves With Extra Long Sleeves Hold The Hot Stuff

If you're using oven mitts at the grill, it's time to trade up. Say hello to these suede welder's gloves. They're heat resistant enough to handle hot grill grates, and flexible enough to handle tongs. The extra long sleeves even let you reach deep into the firebox to move hot logs without getting burned. Our Fave.

GrillGrates Take Gas Grills To The Infrared Zone

GrillGrates(TM) amplify heat, prevent flareups, make flipping foods easier, keep small foods from committing suicide, kill hotspots, are easier to clean, flip over to make a fine griddle, and can be easily removed and moved from one grill to another. You can even throw wood chips, pellets, or sawdust between the rails and deliver a quick burst of smoke to whatever is above. Every gas grill needs them.

Our Favorite Backyard Smoker

The amazing Karubecue is the most innovative smoker in the world. The quality of meat from this machine is astonishing. At its crux is a patented firebox that burns logs above the cooking chamber and sucks heat and extremely clean blue smoke into the thermostat controlled oven. It is our favorite smoker, period.

Masterbuilt MPS 340/G ThermoTemp XL Propane Smoker

The First Propane Smoker With A Thermostat Makes This Baby Foolproof

Set ThermoTemp's dial from 175° to 350°F and the thermostat inside will adjust the burner just like an indoor kitchen oven. All you need to do is add wood to the tray above the burner to start smokin'.

Professional Steakhouse Knife Set

Our founder, Meathead, wanted the same steak knives used by steakhouses such as Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Morton's, Kobe Club, Palm, and many others. So he located the manufacturer and had them stamp our name on some. They boast pointed, temper-ground, serrated, high-carbon stainless-steel, half-tang blades with excellent cutting edge ability. The beefy hardwood handle provides a comfortable grip secured by three hefty rivets. He has machine washed his more than 100 times. They have never rusted and they stay shiny without polishing. Please note that we do not make, sell, or distribute these knives, they just engrave them with our name.

Is This Superb Charcoal Grill A Kamado Killer?

The PK-360, with 360 square inches of cooking space, this rust free, cast aluminum charcoal grill is durable and easy to use. Four-way venting means it's easy to set up for two zone cooking with more control than single vent Kamado grills. It is much easier to set up for 2-zone cooking than any round kamado. Beautifully designed and completely portable. Meathead says it is his preferrred grill.

Finally, A Great Portable Pellet Smoker

Green Mountain's portable Davy Crockett Pellet Smoker is one mean tailgating and picnic machine. But it's also gaining popularity with people who want to add a small, set it and forget it pellet smoker to their backyard arsenal. And with their WiFi capabilities you can control and monitor Davy Crocket from your smart phone or laptop.

Traeger Timberline 850 Grill Review

In 2017 Traeger introduced Timberline; a technologically advanced wood pellet smoker with a sturdy design and a muscular look and feel unlike anything in their extensive catalog. Instead of a barrel shaped smokebox, Timberline has stadium or race track shaped sides with a super high-profile hood to accommodate a low, middle and high rack.

The unusual drip plate beneath the lower rack slants toward the front instead of off to one side, directing grease into a channel that runs right to left and empties into a slide out grease tray under the left side shelf. A large opening at the back of the drip tray is meant to allow heat and smoke to rise up along the back, hit the curved hood and create a downdraft for even heat top to bottom.

To avoid pulling heat toward a single chimney, Timberline has an exhaust vent that runs across the back, further mitigating temp fluctuations from left to right.

It runs hotter at the back and sides, but overall the downdraft design succeeds in providing uniform temp on all three racks. It excels at low and slow smoking in the 225°F range, but like most pellet smokers, Timberline is weak for high temperature searing.

The double-wall lid and smoke box are coated steel with a stainless steel interior. Massive side hinges support the lid which has a thick insulation strip around the edge for a tight seal. The three racks are made of heavy stainless steel rods. Dimensions are 22" x 9" top, 22" x 14" middle and 22" x 16" bottom for a total of about 850 square inches of cook surface. Hence the model name 850. A larger Timberline 1300 is also available. There is a smallish stainless front shelf and large stainless left shelf with tool hooks. The 24 lb. hopper provides plenty of fuel for long cooks. The hopper lid is water proof and accommodates a magnetic bamboo cutting board that is included. Around the back is a clean out door that enables you to easily empty the hopper into a bucket. A thumb screw prevents the door from opening accidentally. A handy power cord hook is adjacent to the door. Timberline rests on four large legs with two big wheels and two locking casters.

Pellet smokers use a temperature regulation system similar to a kitchen oven. A thermostat inside the oven senses the temperature and tells a controller when the temperature has dropped below your set point. The controller then feeds wood pellets into a hot firepot until the desired temp is regained. Click here to learn more about pellet smokers. Traeger pioneered and popularized pellet smokers. Although they dominate this growing market segment, competitors have managed to lure buyers away, often with advanced technology like digital touchpad controllers and WiFi remote monitoring and control that Traeger didn't have. Timberline is the first Traeger to change that.

WiFIRE Controller

The new Timberline WiFIRE Controller mounted on the front of the hopper can be operated at the smoker or remotely via an app that downloads to your smartphone. It has a small Status Display Screen with a selection dial that allows you to scroll through and select various options. Four buttons under the screen select Timer, Super Smoke, Keep Warm and Menu functions. The timer is for convenience only and does not control the smoker. It just beeps when the time is up. Super Smoke only operates in Timberline's low temp range of 165°F to 225°F. Wood pellets produce more smoke at low smoldering temps than hot fast-burning temps. Selecting Super Smoke also modulates the air flow inside the smoke box and allows smoke to intermittently linger before heading out the rear exhaust vent. If foods are done before you're ready to serve, hit Keep Warm to drop temp to 165°F. The menu button accesses various features from set up to choosing cooking methods. An integrated meat probe that plugs into the control panel is included and can be threaded through a small hole in the side of the smoke box. There is a small storage box for the probe under the hopper lid.

Traeger App

Available for IOS or Android smart phones, download the app, create an account, then pair your device to the grill. We had numerous problems getting started with the app as Traeger scrambled to iron out the bugs in their new systems. Once we got up and running, the clouds parted and it was smooth sailing. Traeger's app is very well thought out, useful and user friendly. Monitor progress from your bed, office, car or family room. Check the internal meat temp. Change cooking temp as needed or hit "Keep Warm" to hold foods at your leisure.

Smoking

Timberline performs flawlessly for all low and slow smoking and the even heat provided by the downdraft design allows you to use all three racks without the need to rotate foods as is necessary with smokers that have hot and warm zones. Furthermore, everything we cooked came out moist and juicy even without a water pan. The app is a great asset, especially for looooong BBQ smoking sessions. The remote monitoring and control frees you up to sleep, do errands, go to a show or watch a game without interruption.

Poultry - Crank the Temp!

We had trouble getting good, brown, crisp chicken skin with wings, thighs and whole chickens cooking at 325°F and 350°F. Once again, the meat was remarkably juicy, but the skin came out pale and chewy. Not exactly rubbery, but not what we wanted. At this point we liked Timberline, but couldn't award it our AmazingRibs.com Gold Medal as we felt strongly that it should be able to produce better results with poultry. Just as we were about to conclude tests, Traeger advised us to Crank the Temp to 400°F for poultry. Problem solved! At 400°F we got our crisp skin without drying out the meat and losing the juiciness.So for Gold Medal Grade Golden Skin, goose Timberline to 400°F.

Searing

Timberline has a high temp setting of 500°F, but takes a long time to get into the upper 400°F range and struggles to stay there. Open the lid to flip burgers and the temp drops like a rock, then starts a slow climb back up. Pellet smokers typically don't do a good job of searing, although some have special designs that are meant to provide hot sear zones. Timberline has a dual position lower grate which can be set several inches above the drip plate for smoking, or dropped down low for higher temp cooking. In the low position the grate produced faint sear marks on steak, but the overall finish was grey and bland, (see below). When our test steaks hit 130°F internal temp, we flipped the one on the left, shed a few tears, then removed both and seared with a pan in the kitchen.

Traeger suggests placing a cast iron skillet on the lower rack to sear. An alternative sear surface that is gaining popularity with pellet smokers are extruded aluminum GrillGrates that can boost temp considerably. Click here to learn more about GrillGrates.

Packaging was excellent with heavy cardboard exterior and custom fitted foam inserts to protect parts from damage. The instruction manual could be better. Small pix coupled with minimal text slowed down assembly a bit. Timberline's outstanding WiFIRE controller is more complex than most and the Owner's Manual doesn't cover everything. For example, after firing up Timberline a few times, the Status Display Screen instructed us to clean the grill. This message didn’t go away after cleaning. We called Traeger's customer service number in the Timberline manual, but the agents were not familiar with the new Timberline models and couldn't help. We called our Traeger contacts and discovered there is a dedicated Timberline customer support group at 844-9WIFIRE and learned the clean your grill notification is triggered after 20 hours of operation. One must then access the Clear Notification Screen to reset it. This feature does not shut the unit down or prevent start up, it is just a reminder to clean out the ash.

Timberline has a three year warranty against defects in material and workmanship under normal use. The warranty does not cover shipping or labor.

Cooked On It

We have hands-on experience testing this product. We have also gathered info from the manufacturer, owners and other reliable sources.

Traeger Pellet Grills, LLC.

Traeger pioneered and popularized the pellet smoker and remains the best known brand since it is in wide distribution. And they aim to keep it that way even though competition is growing. New owners took over in 2014 and they appear to be on the move, investing heavily in product development and marketing. Traeger has an interesting variety of pellet smokers from a small portable, to large commercial models, to one that looks like a pink pig.

They offer a full line of branded extras from Traeger Pellets and rubs to Traeger insulation blankets and cold smoker add-ons.

Awards

“The most respected and comprehensive reviewers of grills and smokers in the world”

- Larry Olmsted,Senior Contributor (Forbes)

Many merchants pay us a small referral fee when you click our links and purchase from them. On Amazon it works on everything from grills to diapers, they never tell us what you bought, and it has zero impact on the price you pay, but has a major impact on our ability to improve this site! And remember, we only recommend products we love. If you like AmazingRibs.com, please save this link and use it every time you go to Amazonhttps://tinyurl.com/amazingribs

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